Radical Feminist Thesis

Out all the many myriads of feminism, radical feminism has been the most predominant form of feminism for explaining reasons why women are more likely to be victims of gendered intimate violence. Radical feminist claim that men’s natural behaviour is orientated toward the control of women. For radical feminists’ women are more likely to be victims of gendered intimate violence because of the gender disparity that exists within society. A society that is powered and determined by its patriarchal structure that allows, legitimates and reinforces women’s submission through the use of physical abuse to ensure that women remain oppressed and submissive to men. Radical feminism main principle is that intimate partner violence is the result of male
As a male dominated institution, when women do report their incident of rape to the police, there is a chance that the police as part of the criminal justice system will not believe them. Women have to prove their innocence in the incident, rather than being taken for their word, deterring from the slogan of the criminal justice system “innocent until proven guilty” to rather a “guilty until proven innocent”. Lee (1997) researched women’s treatment in courts and found that in courts when it comes to rape cases that women are scrutinised. The women as well as the perpetrator are on trial. Their sexual history is questioned, whether they were wearing provoking clothes. If a woman were to go against the expected gender norms/ roles, she would be less likely to be believed in as Lee (1997) states that discourses used by judges in considering the actions of men legitimates many of the rape myths. Due to this, women are more likely to be victims of intimate gendered violence as a man’s word would be taken more seriously than a women’s, so incidents of rape are more likely to be dismissed causing more incidents to go unprosecuted. Therefore, showing how the criminal justice system as part of society endorses intimate violence against
Feminist explanations are not without its criticisms. Mills (2003) states that underpinning feminism is the idea that all intimate abuse is heterosexual that all violence warrants a state response and that women want to leave rather than stay in their abusive relationship. Dutton (2006) argues that women are as violent as men intimate relationships, the perpetrators are not always men as feminism proclaims it to be. Archer (2002) has done research to support such claims and has shown that, women are shown to perpetrate acts of intimate partner violence at comparable level to men or in some cases an even higher level. Feminists assert that when women do use forms of violence, they use it as form of self-defence from their male partner. As well as this, feminists face criticism for their main focus on violence in only heterosexual relationships. Feminists do not explain why violence exists in relationships between two women or between two men when there is no subordination in the dynamic between the two partners. Walker (1993) has argued that black feminists maintain that oppression experienced from black women is more severe and different than that experienced by white women. Black women have to face both gender inequality as well as racism, feminists tend to forget that different forms of